The way we interact and carry ourselves rubs off on our children. I’ve always been told that the people I meet are reflections of their parents, and sometimes, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it can be if the majority of behavior reflected on children is what I’ve seen in my life so far. The shows children see their parents watch, the limited restrictions on children, and the exposure of hate, body image destruction, and family trauma. There’s a term that my elementary school used to demonstrate kindness. Everyone has a bucket, and when you are kind to someone, you fill their bucket. Teach your children to leave no buckets empty at the end of the day. Be a good influence on your children, so they can be a good influence on other people themselves. 

Effort, kindness, and empathy should be demonstrated more often to our future generations. Now, I know many people who display these features. But, I have also met many that might need these in their life. Maybe empathy can be tough for people, our minds are all built differently. But displaying kindness to people, even the critics, can make you feel like the better person or the one who is right. Sometimes people irritate us and push us to our limit, but giving them a chance will eventually make them realize what they have been doing wrong.

There is a movie I’ve seen several times, and after watching it, many people, including myself, have been able to notice different behaviors and signs in society that could lead to a future we don’t want to see. ‘Idiocracy’ is a movie about a man who takes part in a military experiment, to help prove that hibernation for humans is possible, and they can preserve the people they need. Eventually, the base is shut down, and the hibernation experiments, along with their participants, are forgotten. The hibernation works, and the main character, Joe Bauers, wakes up five hundred years later, to a broken society. 

The joke in the plot is basically: everyone in the future is an idiot. Now, I’m not saying everyone is an idiot, or we will be. I’m saying society will go downhill if we don’t take the precautions we need to. In the future, everyone makes fun of him, because he talks technicality, and has a reason for what he says. People have started giving ‘Brawndo’, an alternate universe version of Gatorade, to plants instead of water. Junk food is abundant, and the only entertainment on TV is basically an extremely upgraded version of the segment in ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ where they show people getting hurt, or getting specific body parts kicked. Hospitals are unsanitary, water in drinking fountains is replaced with Gatorade, and the court system is a circus. I suggest you watch this movie because after you do, you will start remembering scenes from it when you leave the house, and walk around in public places. It’s difficult to explain specific scenes, but you can definitely watch them yourself!

Right now, society thinks Tik Tok is mainstream entertainment. The Government parties and their name-calling is indicative of society degrading. There is a fast-food restaurant on every corner, which is not serving healthy food to the public, making it easier for people to ignore their health. My father told me about the fast food being everywhere, and I couldn’t tell if he was talking about the movie or our current reality. It’s uncanny. 

I’m trying to explain that there are certain precautions more people should take, in order to help our children make society better, or even easier! I believe that the educational system is not teaching society the important things.  Juniors and seniors in high school haven’t learned how to do taxes, find a job, and how to keep up with their funds or bank accounts, instead we are taught mole conversion and the Pythagorean theorem. Now, the Pythagorean theorem is important, yes. But I’ve been scared for the last five or so years of entering the adult world, not knowing how to pay taxes. 

I believe we should demonstrate the good behaviors I mentioned a little more, and think about how we want to see the future. People born in, let’s say 1949, experienced the introduction of apple computers, self-driven cars, and online school courses. They grew up in an era of drive-in movie theaters, and they are now watching their grandchildren attend school from home. They watched society possibly become more advanced, and the discoveries of new things. Composers and musicians built up the music industry invented instruments, and creativity bloomed. Now, all we use is autotune, and everyone sounds the same. Real creativity is now few and far between. Our generation is already seeing this cycle.  We will watch the future generations discover new things, and possibly build society up to become easier. We want to watch society improve, not backpedal. 

All I’m saying is… be kind to others, yourself, and help in any way you can to make society become stronger.